South Korea striker Park Chu-Young has been forced to go out on loan at
Watford as he is so desperate for first-team action

On loan: South Korea's big hope Park Chu-Young has been farmed out to Watford, as he is desperate for first-team action ahead of the World CupPhoto: ACTION IMAGES

By John Duerden, World Cup Nation: South Korea

10:40AM GMT 22 Feb 2014

In Aug 2011, Park Chu-Young had looked set to sign for Lille, the French champions, but then his phone rang and Arsene Wenger was on the line. It was the worst call to answer since Colin Farrell picked up a New York public phone in Phone Booth and endured a few hours of misery. The South Korean’s Arsenal nightmare lasted a good deal longer than that.

It didn’t seem that way at the time. Park put pen to paper to sign for Arsenal and at a stroke sent the Seoul media wild with surprise and delight. Consequently, the Land of the Morning Calm was anything but when he arrived there 48 hours later for World Cup qualification duty and scored a hat-trick against Lebanon. Four days after that in Kuwait City, local autograph hunters gave him less space than the Lebanese defence in search of a signature from this new Arsenal star who then went on to score Korea’s only goal of the game.

It all confirmed that here was the Taegeuk Warriors’ best striker and one of Asia’s biggest names. It was also a reminder of the early days in his career. Taking the 2004 Asian Youth Championships by storm, he turned professional in 2005 and literally quadrupled attendances in the K-League everywhere he went with FC Seoul. He played well too, finishing his first season as second-highest goalscorer and making his international debut for South Korea in June, netting a last-minute equaliser in a vital World Cup qualifier in Uzbekistan. Quick, two-footed, good in the air and intelligent, there seemed to be nothing he couldn’t do and talk of Chelsea interest was welcomed as natural.

Park stayed at home and the excitement of that first season inevitably faded and so did his performances to an extent, though he made it to the 2006 World Cup. He joined AS Monaco in 2008 and enjoyed three solid seasons in France and in the meantime matured in to Korea's best striker. When a chance came to join Lille in the summer of 2011, most thought that the move was as good as he could hope for but Arsenal and Arsene turned his head.

He started reasonably well with an appearance in the Champions League against Marseille, a well-taken goal against Bolton in the Carling Cup and then ... nothing, apart from seven minutes of Premier League action against Manchester United. That has been pretty much it and his name is rarely mentioned in England free from the word ‘flop’.

Now he is on loan at Watford in the nether-regions of the Championship in the hope that he can return to the national team ahead of the World Cup.

For that, many in Korea blame Arsenal, as after all it’s hard to chastise the player for accepting a dream move. Wenger is the only manager of a major English club with Asian experience yet his record in buying eastern stars is poor. None of Junichi Inamoto, Park Chu-Young or Ryo Miyaichi have made an impact.

Even Park’s fans didn’t really believe that he was good enough to shine for one of Europe’s elite and wonder why Arsenal thought he was. It did seem to be a panic buy and while the player could have done more to seek pastures new (though he did spend some time last season on loan to Celta Vigo) it was the Gunners who had the wrong target in their sights and pressed fire.

The move to Watford may not be glamorous but with June fast approaching, few care. Park just wants minutes on the pitch to make the plane to Brazil and doesn’t even need that many. Korea need him and when he, as is likely, appears against Russia, Algeria and Belgium, he will have a major point to prove.